Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's shot put
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Men's shot put at the Games of the XVI Olympiad | |||||||||||||
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Venue | Olympic Park Stadium | ||||||||||||
Date | 28 November | ||||||||||||
Competitors | 14 from 10 nations | ||||||||||||
Winning distance | 18.57 OR | ||||||||||||
Medalists | |||||||||||||
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The men's shot put was an event at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. The event was also known at the time as putting the weight.[1] The qualifying round and the final both were held on Wednesday November 28, 1956. Fourteen shot putters from ten nations competed.[2] The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress.
Parry O'Brien had held the world record for three years. In that time he had added a meter and a quarter to the previous record, including the current world record he had set just two months earlier. He was also the defending champion. On his first throw of the competition, he improved upon his own Olympic record with a 17.92m. Jiří Skobla moved into second place with 17.39m. In the second round, O'Brien threw a second Olympic record 18.47m, which would prove to be enough to win the competition. Bill Nieder moved into second place with a 17.61m, improving to a 17.81m in the third round which proved to be enough to take silver. While he didn't improve, O'Brien threw consistently just behind his second round mark. His best throw was in the fifth round, his third Olympic record of the day 18.57 m (60 ft 11 in). Any of O'Brien's last five throws would have won the competition. Just before the 18.57, Nieder threw his best of 18.18m. During that fifth round, Ken Bantum briefly moved into bronze medal position with a 17.48m putting the American team in a position to sweep the event for the second time in a row, before Skobla threw three additional cm past him. On his final throw Skobla threw his best of 17.65m.[3] O'Brien's victory was the third consecutive and 11th overall victory for an American shot putter; O'Brien was the fourth man to win two shot put medals and the second man to win two gold medals. It was the third straight Games in which the United States took the first two places, with Skobla's bronze (Czechoslovakia's first shot put medal since 1932) blocking a third straight medal sweep for the Americans.